Vehicle registration plates of Romania

The standard Romanian license plate consists of a blue vertical strip (the European strip) on the left side of the plate displaying the 12 stars of the European Union and the country code of Romania (RO), always followed on a white surface, using black font, by the county code and a combination of two digits and three capital letters. All numbers issued before January 1 2007 used the flag of Romania instead of the 12 European stars. The digits and letters are usually assigned at random, unless a customization fee is paid. The plates are issued for each car and for each owner, and they must be returned when the car is either sold or scrapped, although the new buyer is entitled to ask to use the old number plate, if wanting to do so. Letter combinations that may form obscene text in Romanian have been removed. The letter "Q" is not used as it may be confused with "O". Also the three-letter code cannot start with "I" or "O", as they can be mistaken with "1" or "0" (until 1999, "I" and "O" were not used at all).

Current license plates

There are four other types of license plates in use in Romania:

* The yellow background plate, used by the municipal public transport vehicles and public utility vehicles such as garbage trucks, lawn mowers, etc. The mayoralties are free to issue license plates for whatever task needed, as long as the vehicles cannot leave their jurisdiction, or do not need state level authorization. As such, some cities used license plates to register their garbage trucks, small sanitation vehicles, trolleybuses, trams etc. A number of villages have issued such plates to non-road going vehicles, such as combine harvesters, non-road-going tractors, horse drawn carts, etc. However, some city halls choose to register their buses with standard license plates, since they may be rented, chartered, or may operate on some lines taking them outside city limits. Private persons may also apply for yellow plates for some small vehicles that are designed to be used only inside the limits of a particular city, town or village (such as quad bikes, scooters, golf carts etc.). The license plate is yellow, and usually bears the coat of arms of the city or town on the right side, followed by 2-6 digits in black ink. This license plate allows the usage of the vehicle only inside the jurisdiction of the mayoralty issuing the plate.
* The red plate, consisting of the European strip, followed by the county code and three to seven numbers. All the writing outside of the European-strip on this plate is in red font - these plates are valid for 30 days, and are usually issued by car dealers as temporary registration for their new cars (unlike some countries, license plates don't usually stick with either the car or the driver, and each new owner must do the car registration again, and this can take, due bureaucracy, up to seven days).
* The black plate, same as the red plate, except for the black number, and a right-sided red strip, containing the end date of the plate's validity (YY/MM format). This kind of plate is used for cars that fall under a leasing agreement, with the plate's validity ending when the contract expires.
* The Diplomatic Plate contains the European strip, followed in blue by the text CO, CD (Corp Diplomatic), or TC (Transport Consular, usually issues to lower-ranking service staff) and 6 numbers. The first three numbers stand for the country or international organization, the last three usually for the rank of the owner. The lowest number for both sets of 3 is 101. Thus, a car with license plate number 123 101 would refer to Switzerland's (Switzerland is 123) ambassador (ambassadors' or heads of missions' official car usually is 101). The license plate is issued exclusively to diplomats, and cars having such plates enjoy diplomatic immunity.
* The special plates can be issued by agencies, ministries and local administration for use on their vehicles. Currently, the Army, the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform (formerly Ministry of Administration and Interior) and Mayor's Offices are allowed to issue such numbers. Their format, size and style is decided by each ministry via internal regulations - for example - the Army uses plates containing no European strip (as their regulations predate the 1992 regulation imposing the European strip), with the letter "A" (Army) followed by 3 to 7 digits. Army plates issued more recently (from 2002 onwards) have the European strip. The Ministry of Administration and Interior standard is identical to the one used by the Army, with the exception that it reads "MAI" instead of "A" and can be often seen on Gendarmerie vehicles.

County codes

This is the list of counties and their county code (in parentheses the capital)

* AB Alba (Alba Iulia)
* AG Argeş (Piteşti)
* AR Arad (Arad)
* B Bucharest
* BC Bacău (Bacău)
* BH Bihor (Oradea)
* BN Bistriţa-Năsăud (Bistriţa)
* BR Brăila (Brăila)
* BT Botoşani (Botoşani)
* BV Braşov (Braşov)
* BZ Buzău (Buzău)
* CJ Cluj - (Cluj-Napoca)
* CL Călăraşi (Călăraşi)
* CS Caraş-Severin (Reşiţa)
* CT Constanţa (Constanţa)
* CV Covasna (Sfântu Gheorghe)
* DB Dâmboviţa (Târgovişte)
* DJ Dolj (Craiova)
* GJ Gorj (Târgu Jiu)
* GL Galaţi (Galaţi)
* GR Giurgiu (Giurgiu)
* HD Hunedoara (Deva)
* HR Harghita (Miercurea Ciuc)
* IF Ilfov (Buftea)
* IL Ialomiţa (Slobozia)
* IS Iaşi (Iaşi)
* MH Mehedinţi (Drobeta-Turnu Severin)
* MM Maramureş County (Baia Mare)
* MS Mureş (Târgu Mureş)
* NT Neamţ (Piatra Neamţ)
* OT Olt (Slatina)
* PH Prahova (Ploieşti)
* SB Sibiu (Sibiu)
* SJ Sălaj (Zalău)
* SM Satu Mare (Satu Mare)
* SV Suceava (Suceava)
* TL Tulcea (Tulcea)
* TM Timiş (Timişoara)
* TR Teleorman (Alexandria)
* VL Vâlcea (Râmnicu Vâlcea)
* VN Vrancea (Focşani)
* VS Vaslui (Vaslui)

Historical license plates

The first issue

Plates were first issued around 1910. The earliest plates had white numbers and letters on a black background, although this was reversed in the mid-1920s. In Bucharest and most other counties, the standard plate was a number, followed by a hyphen and the regional abbreviation. Bucharest, for example, was B, while Craiova was "Cv". In some districts of Transylvania, however, the county code came not until the 1920s. Period photos of, for example, Lugoj, show the abbreviation "Lgs", appearing both before and after the number, depending on whether the owner had changed the license plates to conform to the new regulations. Royal cars generally had a crown displayed on the plate instead of any other combination.

This system was in place until 1968. However, the frequent territorial and administrative changes of the period meant that the codes changed often. For example, after 1960 cars registered in Craiova changed their license plates to "Ol", corresponding to the new administrative region Oltenia. Similarly, when Braşov changed its name to Oraşul Stalin in 1952, the regional code was also changed to "O.S.", before reverting to "Bv" in 1960.

Special numbers were used, in a fairly arbitrary way, to denote the type of vehicles they were on. For a period in the 1930s, in Bucharest, numbers between 10,000-B and 14,999-B (the comma was used as thousands separator) were taxis; some had "Tx" as an additional tag. In the 1950s, commercial vehicles were given numbers over 25,000, tractors over 60,000 and motorcycles over 70,000.

Interbelic county codes:

The 1968 license plates

In 1968, following the administrative reorganization, the whole system was changed. The new plates were initially issued in the format aa-BB-ccccc:
*The numbers in front (aa) were arranged as follows:
**1 to 19 - automobiles, since 1990 all private vehicles, regardless of type
**20 - reserved for automobiles, but never used
**21 to 30 - light commercial vehicles
**31 to 40 - heavy commercial vehicles; buses
**41 to 45 - tractors
**46 to 50 - motorcycles.
*The letters (BB) denoted the counties ("judeţe"), which were generally the same counties as the ones used today (see the county codes)
*The numbers after the county abbreviation (ccccc) were in groups of either three, four or five digits, and were issued in ascending order, starting from 101. The old plates were declared invalid. 101 as the first number may have come from the Soviet-style "first number" 01-01.
*Numbers with 5 digits after the county code were issued only in Bucharest. It started with 1-B-10000 to 1-B-99999, then 2-B-10000 to 59999, until the change of the system. Until 1992 there were issued numbers for the Ilfov county (in that time, included in Bucharest as rural region) from 9-B-10000 to 9-B-39999.

An interesting development was the connection between the license plate and the social status of the car owner. For example, the "important" cars (i.e. those belonging to the nomenklatura) generally used 1, then the county, then three digits. Nicolae Ceauşescu's Mercedes sported the "1-B-111" license plate. By the mid-1970s, any plate with three digits was considered important (regardless of the number at the front), and although older cars had been initially issued with three-digit combinations, many owners were "asked" by the authorities to change their numbers. In an age where most people had the same car - the Dacia - such distinguishing features were considered important. By the 1980s, in Bucharest 1-B with 3 or 4 digits and 2-B and 3-B with three digits were also considered important numbers. Furthermore, the legend that the three-digit formula, where the middle number was the sum of the other two numbers, signified real importance sprang up. Thus, many senior Communist leaders had numbers such as 1-B-363, while the Neamţ County party secretary had 1-NT-165 on his black Volga.

Foreign citizens and organizations were issued plates with 12-B (later 12-xx on other counties). 14-B was used for rental cars, but since 1990 some official cars had such number plates too.

There were also some stylistic variations. Numbers on a yellow (rather than white) background were state property, but since all trucks, buses and other heavy vehicles were state property, those with yellow background plates belonged to ministries or other special state organizations. Numbers with white letters on a black background were issued to vehicles of the foreign organizations in Romania, but also to vehicles belonging to religious organizations.

Temporary plates had the county code and then a number beginning with 0; test drive plates had a number beginning with 0 and then the county.

In 1978 the manufacture of plates was standardized and they were all made on a pressed steel rectangle; previously plates had been plastic, cast iron, enamel, porcelain or even plaster. In 1984, after 19-B-9999 had been reached, it was decided to begin the series 1-B with five digits. In 1985, after a brief reorganization of the counties, IF (Ilfov County) was dropped, CL (Călăraşi County) and GR (Giurgiu County) were introduced, and the Bucharest Agricultural Sector ("Sectorul Agricol Ilfov") issued plates beginning with 9-B and followed by five digits.

The system was finally changed in 1992, when new reflective plates were introduced, with the numbering system still in use today. One reason was to please the European authorities and to make Romanian cars safer when being driven abroad; another was allegedly to hide the identities of previous Communist leaders, whose importance was visible on their bumpers. Indeed, in the weeks after the Romanian Revolution, many changed their license plates to Army plates to avoid trouble. Nevertheless, they remained valid until late 2000, and for many years 1-B-101 and 1-B-106 were seen being driven around Bucharest on cars owned by tennis player Ilie Năstase.

In the mid 1990s, urban myths circulated that the new "powerful" license plates began with B 06. However, this was quickly superseded by the rumor that they contained a W in the three-letter sequence. Although this is not strictly incorrect - many, such as the cars used by Traian Băsescu and Prince Charles, do - certainly not all such numbers are of any significance.

The Army license plates

The license plates before around 1945 were white and had a number beginning with a zero. In front of the number was the initial of the Ministry of Defense State Undersecretaries:
* U for the Ground Forces (U for "Uscat", Land)
* A for the Air Force (A for "Aer", Air)
* M for the Navy (M for "Marină", Navy)
*I for the Logistics (I for "Înzestrare", Logistics).

This system was subsequently abolished when all military vehicles had the prefix A (for "Armată", Army) in front of the registered numbers, which start at 100. This system lasted until 2005 and is still visible today. Numbers smaller than 10,000 are generally kept for cars.

Diplomatic license plates

Until 1958 these were standard plates, with "CD" prefix attached to them. In 1958 oval and square plates were introduced, oval for CD ("Corps Diplomatique") and square for TC (auxiliary staff). CD or TC went above a three-digit number.

pecial license plates

In the pre-1968 system, "CO" ("Cetăţean de Onoare", Honorary Citizen) was occasionally seen on private cars before 1941, and "Cr" ("Crucea Roşie", the Red Cross) was used on some ambulances.